LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Benguet Caretaker Congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Yap was assured by Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. that there will be more quality vaccines to be delivered to the province to help fastrack the roll out of the government’s mass vaccination program to achieve population protection and herd immunity among the populace.
Yap, who chairs the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, stated that of the initial 52,000 vaccines promised by the czar to be delivered to Benguet, some 32,000 vaccines had been made available in the last two weeks and that the remaining balance will be delivered to the province in the next several weeks.
Aside from the said commitment from the national government, the lawmaker claimed that Secretary Galvez has committed to provide a steady supply of vaccines for Benguet as there is a substantial number of vaccines that have arrived in the country.
Congressman Yap urged unvaccinated residents to avail of vaccines of any brand shipped to Benguet because what is important is that they are inoculated instead of waiting for their preferred vaccines.
According to him, he will continue to make the appropriate representations with Secretary Galvez to remind him of his commitment to regularly provide Benguet with adequate supply of vaccines that will be inoculated to the increasing number of individuals that are interested to be vaccinated for them to be able to avail of the privileges being granted to fully vaccinated individuals.
Yap admitted that what was inoculated to them is Sinovac because he believes that what is readily available is the one that could be vaccinated on them and it was proven that being vaccinated with whatever kind of vaccine will help spare individuals from contracting severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and even causing their untimely demise.
Benguet plans to inoculate more or less 300,000 eligible adult population and that the number of vaccinated individuals is drastically increasing because of the significant rise in the available vaccines being delivered to the province over the past several weeks.
While it has been noticed that there are an increasing number of residents from the different municipalities who do not want to be vaccinated with Sinovac, Congressman Yap expressed confidence that people will realize that the available vaccines will help protect them from contracting severe infection and eventual death of individuals, thus, the need for them to avail of whatever vaccines that could be inoculated on them.
Benguet is composed of 13 municipalities having a population of less than 400,000 with an eligible adult population of approximately 300,000 which should be vaccinated by the government within the year or up to early next year to help in achieving population protection and eventual herd immunity that will greatly contribute on the ongoing efforts to start reviving the local economy for the generation of jobs to displaced individuals and enhance economic activities and additional sources of livelihood for the people. By HENT
